In the News (Fri 18 Aug 17)

The ShiningPath’s political and revolutionary strategy is based on the beliefs of Mao Zedong, a Chinese revolutionary leader who advocated the development of an initial Communist revolution in rural areas, followed by the conquest of urban centers.

The ShiningPath was organized in the late 1960s at the National University of San Cristobal de Huamanga in the central Andean town of Ayacucho.

By late 1985, ShiningPathguerrillas were also active in the department of Puno in the south, in the Andean departments of Junín and Pasco to the north, and the coca-growing region of the Upper Huallaga Valley in the northeastern departments of Huánuco and San Martín.

The ShiningPath, named after a quote from the founder of Peru's first communist party, Jose Marategui, launched a campaign of bombings, assassinations and sabotage that brought the government close to collapse.

The leader of the ShiningPath was Abimail Guzman, a former philosophy professor and a devotee of Mao who visited China many times during the Cultural Revolution.

The ShiningPath won much of its support among the young in rural communities in Peru's mountainous centre, many of whom had attended universities such as Huamanga, where radical professors like Guzman taught.

The Communist Party of Peru-Shining Path (Partido Comunista del Peru-Sendero Luminoso, sometimes referred to as simply Sendero Luminoso or ShiningPath), is a Maoistguerrilla group in Peru famed for their use of violent and terrorist tactics.

When Peru's military government allowed elections for the first time in a dozen years in 1980, ShiningPath was one of the few insurrectionary groups which declined to take part, instead launching a guerrilla war by attacking election infrastructure in the highlands of the province of Ayacucho[?].

During this era, ShiningPath acquired a reputation as one of the most ruthless terrorist groups in the Western Hemisphere, using tactics that included conscription of children, forced labor, executions by stoning and throat-slitting (ostensibly to save bullets), destruction of the electricity infrastructure, indiscrimate bombings, and targeted assassinations of political opponents.

And in another attack prior to March 2002, in October 1999ShiningPath managed to ambush a high-ranking military delegation that was stated to be negotiating the surrender of an active column in the central jungle.

ShiningPath’s comeback was facilitated by the critical errors made in the last decade by three Peruvian presidents.

ShiningPath’s leaders now had the opportunity to hold high staff meetings, assessing what was happening politically on the outside, and to communicate their comments and decisions to their people in the outside world.

In fact, the followers of the ShiningPath were instrumental in helping the wrath of the Inquisition of Magic subside over time as they pleaded to the common folk to end their violent persecutions and address the question of magic through lawful and peaceful channels.

The ShiningPath has a dedicated monastic order established by Elias to allow his followers to devote themselves fully to the holy life he preached which has widespread influence and hundreds of monasteries and churches throughout the west.

It is not uncommon for the common people to practise a hybrid of the ShiningPath and other religions, acknowledging the doctrine of man taking hold of his own destiny through education and enlightenment, rejecting magic, but still paying homage to gods and spirits to receive good fortune in all kinds of matters.

The MaoistShiningPathguerrilla group distributed flyers on Monday calling for a boycott of Peru's April 9 general election, a police official said.

ShiningPath began its "popular war" in Peru by burning ballot boxes in the Andes in 1980 on the eve of the first democratic elections in 12 years.

The group was responsible for some 40,000 deaths in the 1980s and 1990s as it fought to impose communism on Peru, but its attacks dropped substantially after the capture in 1992 of its leader, Abimael Guzman.

The ShiningPath was recorded at Fried From Sound, McManus' Omaha home studio and written and recorded by McManus himself with help from a few contributing musicians.

Part of this is due to McManus' proficiency at a vast arsenal of instruments and his longtime experience with home recording, but it certainly doesn't hurt that he once again enlisted the help of fellow Lambchop member Marky Nevers when it came time to mix.

The songs themselves are staggering; they sound like lost remnants of the 60s/70s folk that cemented the careers of such greats as Jackson C. Frank, Bert Jansch and Roy Harper, only sung with McManus' midwestern drawl.

www.misrarecords.com /bruces.php (454 words)

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The ShiningPath and MRTA were the two armed groups operating, with daily violations of humanitarian laws.

But now, after the defeat of the subversive groups, the current regime is trying to present an official history that lays all the responsibility at the feet of the subversive groups, while trying to cover up all the responsibilities of the military and the death squads related to the military forces.

Not until the ShiningPath started actions in Lima did the public opinion of the urban zones realize what was really happening.

ShiningPath and Tupac Amaru are terrorists who caused thousands of deaths and untold suffering.

By 1994, ShiningPath had lost much of their strength, and more than 80,000 of the displaced refugees were able to return home.

Between 1995 and 2000, ShiningPath violence was minimal in most areas, with the exception of Peru's Amazon region, where remaining ShiningPathguerrillas continued to harass the indigenous population and displace some civilians.

CALLAO, Peru — The founder of Peru's MaoistShiningPath insurgency raised a defiant fist and proclaimed, "Glory to Marxism!" in court Friday as the government began his retrial on terrorism charges, a decade after he was sentenced to life in prison.

Guzman, 69, the mastermind of a bloody insurgency initiated in 1980 by a movement that envisioned a classless utopia, was captured in 1992 and later sentenced by a secret tribunal to life in prison without parole.

Experts on the ShiningPath insurgency fear that the government is not fully prepared to retry Guzman, known to his followers as "Presidente Gonzalo," in a civilian court.

Whether or not the SHININGPATH leadership felt it was militarily strong enough to take on the army (their forces had no actual combat experience), they were convinced they had no other choice.

In fact, SHININGPATH tells you outright that Guzman, not Mao, invented "Maoism." "The principal contribution of Gonzalo Thought is to have developed the definition of Maoism as a new, third and higher state of Marxism." [Guzman, Speech, pg.

As SHININGPATH explains it, [Comments by representatives of CPP leadership to PLP delegation, February, 1992] today they are leading a united front people's war of the peasants, the petty bourgeoisie (the self employed and the professionals) and themselves (representing the working class.) The peasants are the base, the working class leads.

The ShiningPath bombed electrical towers, bridges and factories, assassinated mayors and massacred villagers, including 69 peasants in the Andean village of Lucanamarca, where nearly two dozen children were among those shot and hacked to death in retaliation for the killings of several rebels.

A government-appointed truth commission in 2003 blamed the ShiningPath for 54 percent of nearly 70,000 estimated deaths and disappearances caused by rebel violence and a brutal state backlash between 1980 and 2000.

The ShiningPath drove that message home by shooting activists, hacking them to death or blowing up their bodies with dynamite.

Recent attacks by the insurgent ShiningPath movement in Peru are causing concern among civil society and governments.

Elements of the ShiningPath were seen during the teacher's strike in May and were denounced by the leaders of the teachers' union.

So when Hutchinson speaks in an alarmist tone of the connections between the Colombian FARC rebels and the ShiningPath, he is looking for Peru to authorize the placement of a military base in its territory and that is not advisable.

The ShiningPath emerged from this rage to become one of the most violent guerrilla groups in the world.

The ShiningPath is commonly referred to as a Maoist group (named after the Communist leader from China, Mao Zedong), but its beliefs stem from many political ideologies, most importantly Marxism and Leninism, as well as Maoism.